I remember as a student, when the teacher was out of the classroom we children often had a field day. obedience was lip service only. In Neh. 10:28-39, the people publicly commit to keep and observe all the commandments of God. A group of leaders also sign and submit a document committing themselves to obeying the Lord and keeping His laws (Neh. 9:38). The way to hell is paved with lip service and good intentions.
NEHEMIAH RETURNS AND IS HORRIFIED
In Nehemiah 13:4-31, Nehemiah is called back to Persia, for about two years. The teacher is “out of the classroom.” What a surprise awaits Nehemiah when the King allows Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem. The teacher returns and is horrified.
SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG
“While the cat’s away, the mice will play.” The Jews have been busy playing away. The High Priest, Eliashib, sets up Tobiah, archenemy of both Nehemiah and God with a business office in the holy Temple. Tobiah’s designated space is the storeroom dedicated to hold the Temple articles and offerings. During Nehemiah’s absence, the people stopped bringing their tithes and offerings to the Levites. Eliashib is pragmatic and lends the space to Tobiah. Eliashib’s former declarations of reverence and obedience to God are empty words. Denied a living wage from the tithes, the Levites gradually leave their Temple duties and return home to farm. Something is seriously wrong with this picture! Sounds like both mice and rats are playing away.
Nehemiah learns about Tobiah. How could things have gone downhill so quickly? He tosses Tobiah out the Temple doors and restores the room to its designated use: storage of Temple articles and offerings. With their wages restored, the Levites can return to their dedicated service in the Temple.
GOD RELAGATED TO A STORAGE CLOSET
But there is more. Nehemiah looks out his window on the Sabbath and notices people back to their old tricks of doing business on God’s day. What busy people! Treading grapes, transporting merchandise, and buying fish. They forget God is their Provider alone and worthy of worship. Commerce comes first. They spiritually relegate God to a storage closet. Maybe they think, “We have bills to pay, and God surely isn’t going to mind if we stop giving. We must take care of ourselves first and possibly give God something if there is anything left over.” The mice play away without regard of God.
THE MICE TAKE NO NOTICE OF GOD
Nehemiah goes into action. He orders locking the city’s gates at the beginning of Sabbath and unlocking them at the end of Sabbath. Can you hear the resentment of the businessmen? How dare Nehemiah shut down their busiest day? They forget their promise of allegiance to God alone. The mice take no notice of God.
HEARTS RUNNING ASTRAY
Nehemiah also notices the voices of children in the city, but the language is not Hebrew. The language belongs to heathen women again invited into marriage with the Jews. Don’t the people remember what had happened to King Solomon’s heart when he personally entered hundreds of such marriages? His heart ran astray. Nehemiah learns that a grandson of High Priest Eliashib made such an unholy alliance. The kicker is that the wife is Sanballat’s daughter. Sanballat was an even worse enemy than Tobiah.
Repeatedly Nehemiah prays in this chapter. Listen to the anguish in his prayers. During his previous twelve years with them, the people presented a veneer of goodness and obedience. The teacher was in the room. But once the teacher exits, the students’ true nature appears.
HANDING THE REINS OVER
Sin always crouches at the door. Satan is a roaring lion, the thief and destroyer. It is easy to sign a piece of paper and say one will live for Christ. It is quite another to daily choose to take God seriously and consistently live for Him alone. Unless we hand the reins of our lives over to the Holy Spirit, things go down fast. Don’t be the mouse that plays away. Let the Holy Spirit consistently live and guide in the classroom of your heart.
Click to read more about walking with the Spirit.